Vinegar Years- Chapter 2

His naivete was gone. He realized people behaved in completely self-serving ways. The only time any person would show interest was if they smelled a way to make money or could manipulate others to do free tasks. Yet he found strangers who had no interest in screwing others and that fascinated and puzzled him. They were rare but when he came upon one it was like a fresh breeze smelling of cleanness. He realized people were basically lazy and cowardly. The lengths people would go to protect their personal fiefs and positions were infinite. Self-preservation was the strongest and over-riding human emotion. There were no rules, no lines of limit. People would lie, cheat, and invent damaging character assassinations to bolster their own positions. The successful ones at this game were utterly bankrupt morally. They were predators constantly probing for weaknesses, the same way wolves will follow a herd of buffalo or elk to pick off the very old, very young, or the sick. But human predators are innately lazy, they will quickly lose interest if they see they must make exertions. The only differance between a businessman and a common theif is government approval. He felt disgust each time he heard a businessman lament "I'm not making any money on this!" Yet he worked for such a specimen.